WB to give technical aid to BB to recover $81m

Siddique Islam | Published: April 18, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

The World Bank (WB) has assured the Bangladesh Bank (BB) of providing necessary technical supports for recovering the stolen $81 million from the Philippines, officials said.
Two senior WB officials gave the assurance at a meeting with senior officials of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) and BB. It was held at the central bank headquarters on Sunday with BB Deputy Governor Abu Hena Mohd Razee Hassan in the chair.
The WB senior officials are Kevin Stephenson, senior financial sector specialist at WB headquarters, and Priyani Malik, financial sector specialist at WB Dhaka Office.
"We've discussed about different procedures that will be applied for recovering our stolen money from the Philippines," a BB senior official told the FE after the meeting.
The WB officials were informed about the latest initiatives, taken by the central bank through Bangladesh diplomatic missions in the United States and the Philippines for recovering the stolen money, he added.
Later, the WB officials also met BB Governor Fazle Kabir.
The central banker also said the WB officials will also meet the BB officials concerned today (Monday) in this connection.
"The WB team is set to meet the senior government officials on Monday on the same ground," he added.
The central bank earlier said it would follow stolen asset-recovery initiative (StAR), if necessary. StAR is a partnership between the WB Group and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
BB also sought cooperation from WB to bring back the stolen money from the Philippines.
The central bank is yet to take any decision or any initiative about filling lawsuit against the US Federal Reserve Bank of New York after $101 million was stolen from its foreign exchange reserve account by cyber hackers.
"We're yet to take decision about filling the lawsuit against the US Federal Reserve Bank," BB spokesperson Shubhankar Saha told reporters at an official briefing on Sunday.
Mr. Saha also said the central bank earlier appointed a senior lawyer to assess the issues on legal ground.
He also said BB is now communicating with the US Fed Reserve for recovering the stolen money.
"We expect that the bank will extend its cooperation as our counterpart in this connection," he hoped. Â
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